Iconic Playboy Dies at 91

Hugh Hefner, the founder and creator of the Playboy brand, magazine, media and entertainment-industry, died on Wednesday at his home, the Playboy Mansion, in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles. He was 91years old at death, which was announced by Playboy Enterprises as they mourn the passing of the trailblazing icon.

Hefner the man and Playboy the brand were inseparable. Both advertised themselves as emblems of the sexual revolution, an escape from American priggishness and wider social intolerance. Both were derided over the years — as vulgar, as adolescent, as exploitative and finally as anachronistic. But Mr. Hefner was a stunning success from the moment he emerged in the early 1950s. His timing was perfect.

The first issue of Playboy was published in 1953, when Mr. Hefner was 27, a new father married to, by his account, the first woman he had slept with at age 22.

As the entertainment industry mourns his death, many celebrities and industry movers and shakers, took to social media to pause and express their deepest condolences for his passing, life, and legacy. Hefner impacted many of their lives and careers, in one way or another, and his memory will live on through the Playboy Enterprises.